11 Ways to Make 500 A Month On The Side

Last updated on April 7th, 2019 at 04:51 am

We all want to make to improve our finances. If you’re looking for some creative ways to make 500 a month, then you’re in the right place. Whether you’re looking to make extra income for Christmas or just want to start a side hustle, you can get started today.

Today, we’ll be looking at some different methods that you can use to create your income. Check out this post if you’re looking to make an extra 100 per month.

Creative Ways to Make Money

Most of us grew up thinking that we had to a get a JOB to pay the bills. But I’m here to tell you, it’s possible to earn money online from home.

Whether you’re looking to earn money as a side gig or turn it into a full-time business, I’m going to share some different methods you can use to earn extra income.

11 Ways to Make 500 A Month On The Side

#1 Take Surveys Online

Do you realize that there are companies that will pay you to complete surveys for them? Just by taking 10-20 minutes per day, you could easily bring in an extra 200 a month from home or more. It really all just depends on how much time you devote to this method.

The great thing is that you can easily fill out surveys while you are watching television at night. You’ll earn points just for signing up with any of the programs below.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks allows you to earn join for free and start earning quick and easy SBs (Swagbucks) by answering surveys, making purchases online, watching videos, and playing video games online.

To get started, you’ll search via the Swagbucks search engine to find opportunities to get started. Give yourself 10 minutes to get comfortable navigating the dashboard, but before you know it, you’ll be earning Swagbucks.

Swagbucks allows their users to redeem their SB’s at a discounted price once per month.

CashCrate

CashCrate allows you to start earning online by filling out surveys and accepting offers. You can make money by completing daily surveys, join special offers, cash back shopping, playing games online.

Another great way to make money is by referring friends and family. As soon as you join, you’ll find your referral link in your dashboard. Whenever someone signs up through your link, you’ll get paid.

It’s not that hard to get people to sign up for this program, after all, who doesn’t want to save money when shopping online?

I highly suggest that you sign up for all of them to make the most income you can.

Inbox Dollars

Start earning money with Inbox Dollars by filling out surveys, using it as your default browser, earn cash back from using Groupon, watching TV, and referring friends and family.

You can sign up today and start earning right away. Make sure that you set realistic expectations because you won’t be making a killing online.

However, if you can set aside 30 minutes daily to work on these sites, you should be able to make a nice side income.

Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie will pay you for your opinions and feedback. They offer payments in popular gift cards or will send you money directly to your PayPal account.

Spend time to fill out your survey and they will match you to the surveys that are a good match for you. This will save you a ton of time.

Instead of trying to find the right paid online survey, you can spend more time earning. They pay $1 – $3 per survey, plus they have the highest ratings on TrustPilot.

#2 Become A Virtual Assistant

VWith more and more people starting businesses online, there is no better time than now to become a virtual assistant. As of mid, 2017, there were an estimated one billion virtual assistants worldwide, with that number expected to grow.

If you have access to the Internet and a working computer, you can tap into this profitable market. People are willing to pay people to do all kinds of tasks, they don’t have time to do.

As a virtual assistant some of your tasks may include:

• Formatting and editing blog posts
• Creating Pinterest images
• Responding to emails
• Setting up social media schedules using (Tailwind, Buffer, and etc.)
• Keyword research for blog posts
• Organizing folders and files

If you’ve been contemplating becoming a virtual assistant, I recommend you read How to Become a VA by Gina Horkey. She shares her experience of building a successful virtual assistant business. She’s also created a course that will show you how to become a virtual assistant called 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success.

#3 Make Money Blogging

This is my favorite method because you have more control over the amount you make. I have been blogging for almost 2 years and I am now blogging full-time. I still don’t make a six figure income like a lot of bloggers, but I make enough to pay my bills and run this blog.

Blogging is a long-term income strategy, but it can definitely be a great way to earn extra cash. You can even start one while you’re working a full-time job.

I’ve written a short book that explains how to start driving traffic to your blog. One of the most challenging things that most bloggers face when starting a blog is getting traffic.

Resource: How to JumpStart Your Blog Traffic

How to Get Started:

Choose where you want to host your blog. I recommend starting with SiteGround or WP Engine

• SiteGround: Shared hosting that is more affordable for a brand new blogger. I am currently using the GrowBig plan and it is perfect up to 25,000 pageviews.
• WP Engine: This is the perfect hosting if you don’t want to worry about any of the technical aspects that come with blogging. Their managed hosting makes it so easy for you to focus on just creating content, they have great customer support.

Pro Tip: Be sure to pay for more than one year up front, to save as much as you can. The renewal fees on Siteground have gone up. I paid for 3 years when I purchased the GrowBig account.

#4 Become A Freelance Writer

If you love writing did have you considered getting paid for it? I’ve written some articles as a freelancer in the past before starting my WordPress freelance business.

I had a client that was paying me $50 per article. (I no longer freelance) Imagine finding a client that is willing to pay you $50 for one article.

If you just wrote 10 articles per month, you could easily make 500 per month.

Whether you want to make an extra 200 or more per month, it’s totally possible. Just be prepared to work hard at it and find the clients that are willing to pay you for your time and effort.

There are people who do this for a living because the money is so good.

If you’re ready to become a freelance writer, be sure to check out Gina Horkey’s 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success.

#6 Cash Back Programs

Cashback programs can help you earn while you shop at your favorite stores. It took me forever to download some of these apps for my iPhone.

I’m not sure if it’s because I thought that it wouldn’t be worth my time or it would just be too much trouble. There are two apps that save me money and I want to tell you about them.

Ebates

Ebates offers cash back at over 2000 stores online. Whenever I am shopping online, I always make it a point to make the purchase through my Ebates account. I was surprised at how much money I’ve been able to save on purchases that I was going to buy online anyway.

All you have to do is sign up for a free account and whenever you shop for anything online, make sure that you’re doing it through your Ebates account. You’ll be surprised at how easy it can be to earn money just by using it.

#7 Affiliate Marketing

If you already have a website, blog or some type of online presence, you could literally start making money with affiliate marketing today. You’ll need to join 1-3 affiliate programs that you believe in or are related to your blog.

Once you are accepted, you’ll start earning whenever someone purchases through your unique link. There are several people who have been able to earn thousands just by using this method.

I recommend that you choose a good affiliate marketing training course that will walk you through step-by-step on how to get started. Without a strategy in place, you’ll easily become frustrated when you don’t see the results. I highly recommend the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course that will teach you everything you need to know.

Here are some networks you can get started with for free:

• ShareASale: They have thousands of companies that you can work with, you’ll find Home Depot, Pura Vida and Etsy.
• FlexOffers: Another affiliate network that works with several popular companies that will pay to be an affiliate.
• Ultimate Bundles: Sign up to promote huge bundles that are related to fitness, working from home, and health.
• Ebates: You can start earning money just by shopping through their site. Plus you can earn $5 – $25 per referral and they pay quarterly through PayPal.

#8 Write An Ebook

If you’re already writing content for your blog, you could easily create an Ebook that you could offer for your readers. The great thing about writing an Ebook is that you write it once and you can sell it over and over.

How to Get Started

Decide how you will be selling your book. I recommend using Send Owl, Easy Digital Downloads or using Amazon.

• Send Owl: You get full control over how you want to promote the digital product. They do have low monthly fees that will fit any budget.
• Easy Digital Downloads: If you use WordPress for your website, you can offer the ebook right on your site. This plugin makes it easy for people to pay with either Stripe or Paypal.
• Amazon: You submit your book to the Amazon marketplace and pay a fee anytime a sale is made. The good news is that Amazon markets the book depending on the keywords and categories you used when you submit the book.

I’ve added a few of my Ebooks to Amazon and sell one on my blog. There’s no reason that you can’t sell it on your blog and on Amazon.

#9 Place Ads On Your Blog

If you already have a website or blog that is getting traffic, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t consider adding display ads to see if you can earn extra income.

Some people hate ads, but the truth is that ads can make a blogger great money. There are several bloggers who are making more than an extra 2000 per month just by displaying ads on their site.

If you’re a brand new blogger, you can get started with Adsense, but chances are you won’t make a lot of money right out of the gate. When you’re new and don’t have a lot of traffic, you’re going to have to test out different ad networks to see which ones make the most.

I’ve tested Google Adsense and Media.net on this blog and at the time, I wasn’t getting a lot of traffic. It’s time for me to test them out again since my traffic has increased since I’ve used them on this blog.

How to Get Started

Choose how you want to add ads to your blog. I’d recommend using a plugin like Advanced Ads to make the process easier.

Advanced Ads: Makes it so easy to add ads, banners, images or anything you want in your blog content, sidebar, header, footer or anywhere you want without messing with code.

#10 Get Paid to Test Websites

There are big companies that are looking for feedback on the usability of their websites.

This is where Usertesting helps you out. You sign up for free and then answer questions about websites, you’ll let them know what you liked about it, was it easy to navigate or confusing? Basically, you’re just providing them with feedback to help them improve the usability of their website.

You must be 18+ to get accepted into the program. You have the opportunity to earn $10 – $15 per test, and the tests usually take between 15 – 20 minutes.

#11 Plan and Launch Your Own Course

More and more people are creating courses because people want to learn online. If you have any type of skills, you can create a course to teach people who want to learn what you know.

Maybe you can teach how to run your first marathon, writing a resume that sells itself, how to crochet or teach people how to improve their writing skills.

There are literally online courses in every niche and genre you can think of. You just have to dig deep and decide what you want to create.

Once you create the course, you’ll need to decide how you want to deliver it to your customers.

How to Get Started:

Choose your platform Teachable, Udemy or Digital Access Pass

• Udemy: You’ll be offering your online in a marketplace where people go to find online courses. This will make it easier to promote your new online course.
• Teachable: Is a third party software that offers different pricing options. You’ll be in charge of marketing your online course to get people to your online course.
• Digital Access Pass: Membership software that allows you to host your online course on your website so you have full control over everything. Again, you’ll be responsible for promoting your digital course.

Final Take Away

Whether you’re looking to make an extra 1000 or just an extra 200 a week, it’s totally possible. The important thing to remember is to set realistic expectations.

Regardless of which method you choose, you’re not going to make a lot of money fast. However, all these methods are legit and can help you supplement your income.

The important thing is to pick one method and give it time to work. Most people find themselves jumping from one method to another and wonder why they never make any money.

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You can literally get started today and work towards changing your life. There’s no better time than now to start, imagine where you’ll be in one year from now if you start today.